U.S. companies are leaving China thanks to the trade war. They’ll leave even more thanks to the pandemic. Sorry, Davos Man. Your China-led globalization is going out of style like bell bottoms. Global manufacturing consulting firm Kearney released its seventh annual Reshoring Index on Tuesday, showing what it called a “dramatic reversal” of a five-year […]
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Evidence Suggests U.S. Financial Crisis Started on August 14, 2019…
In the Federal Reserve’s most recent “Supervision and Regulation Report” on the big bank holding companies it “supervises,” the Fed continued its attempts to perpetuate the narrative that “The banking industry came into 2020 in a healthy financial position” and has simply unraveled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. That narrative is built on […]
How the Wuhan Virus Bailout Gave Wall Street a No-Lose Casino …
In late April Marko Kolanovic, a financial analyst for JPMorgan Chase, wrote to clients with good news. Pandemic aside, investors should expect stock prices in S&P 500 companies to return to record numbers some time early next year! “The S&P 500 should attain previous all-time highs,” Kolanovic wrote, “if the monetary measures are sustained.” The […]
BlackRock Begins Buying Junk Bond ETFs for the Fed Today: It’s Already at Work for the Central Bank of Israel…
It’s off to the races today for BlackRock. The New York Fed, with authority from the Federal Reserve Board and backstopped with taxpayers’ money, will begin the first phase of the Fed’s unprecedented leap into shoring up the sagging prices of investment grade corporate debt and junk bonds. BlackRock has been selected by the New […]
Batshit Crazy!: Nancy Pelosi Unveils $3 Trillion, 1,815-Page Leftist Coronavirus Bill…
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) unveiled her $3 trillion phase four coronavirus bill on Tuesday that serves as a “policy wishlist” for Democrats and progressives. Pelosi unveiled the Heroes Act, which is a 1,815-page bill that the House will likely vote on Tuesday. The legislation was not negotiated with congressional Republicans or the Donald Trump […]
Yuan, Futures Slide After Trump Orders Retirement Fund Investment in Chinese Stocks Blocked…
Having threatened last week that “COVID reparation” would be paid one way or another – and following Peter Navarro’s comments echoing the same rhetoric this morning – FOX Business reports that President Trump is moving ahead with his plans to block a government retirement fund from investing in Chinese equities considered a national security risk. […]
Yowza!: Deficit Soared to Record-Smashing $738B in April…
The Treasury Department on Tuesday said that the federal government ran a historic $738 billion deficit in April. The shortfall, which reflects the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, is about 3 times as large as the second-largest monthly deficit on record. It is larger than the federal deficit for all of fiscal year 2017, which […]
Fed Chair Powell Has Upwards of $11.6 Million Invested with BlackRock, the Firm that Will Manage a $750 Billion Corporate Bond Bailout Program for the Fed…
Most Americans likely assume that Jerome Powell, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, is an economist, like the prior chairs of the Fed over the past 40 years. He’s not. Powell is a former investment banker at the Wall Street firm, Dillon Read; a former partner at the controversial private equity and leveraged buyout firm, […]
The Fed Is Propping Up Companies It Had Warned Banks Not to Touch…
For years, the Federal Reserve warned that too many highly risky companies were engaging in fuzzy accounting that bumped up their earnings — making it easier for them to obtain loans. The practice was driving up corporate debt to excessive and worrisome levels, regulators chastised. But now, in its latest effort to keep credit flowing, […]
Larry Kudlow Discusses April Jobs Report – Numbers Full of “Heartbreak and Hardship”…
National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow appears on Fox Business to discuss today’s report on jobs from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. The estimated unemployment rate jumped to 14.7 percent. Kudlow brings up a good point: allow people to take a tax deduction for COVID-19 expenses…
China Not Yet Honoring Purchase Commitments, New Trade Data Shows…
A pandemic wasn’t on the radar when the United States and China inked “phase one” of a trade agreement in mid-January. And only a few months into the trade deal, mounting accusations against China for mishandling the virus outbreak and failing to fulfill its purchase targets in the agreement have revived fears of a second […]
“Unprecedented” – Companies Slashed over 20 Million Jobs In April, ADP…
Given the fact that over 30 million Americans have filed for initial jobless claims in the last six weeks, it is perhaps no surprise that economists expected a 20.5 million ADP job loss in April. In fact, silver lining, the number ‘beat’ with 20.236 million. For context, the largest monthly job loss during the great […]
SUVs Get Parked in the Sea, Revealing Scope of U.S. Auto Market Glut…
The length of almost two football fields, the cargo ship Jupiter Spirit arrived in Los Angeles’ harbor on April 24 after an almost three-week journey from Japan, ready to unload its cargo of about 2,000 Nissan Armada SUVs, Rogue crossovers and Infiniti sedans in a quick, half-day operation. But when the ship, operated by Nissan […]
Lawsuit: Indian Managers Use H-1Bs to Discriminate Against Americans…
An Indian-run outsourcing company used Congress’s H-1B visa-worker program to systematically discriminate against American college graduates, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in New Jersey. The company, named Wipro, “operates under a general policy of discrimination in favor of [imported] South Asians and against [American] individuals who are not South Asian and not Indian,” says […]
Big 4 Airlines Take on Wuhan Virus with New Safety Measures…
The largest of the U.S. airlines joined its competitors on Friday in creating safety measures the industry has never seen before as they all attempt to get their businesses flying again in the wake of the coronavirus shutdown. Southwest, which according to recent U.S. Department of Transportation data claimed 20 percent of U.S. air passengers […]
Wall Street’s Financial Crisis Preceded Wuhan Virus: Chart and Timeline…
If a reputable polling outfit were to ask Americans what caused the current financial crisis on Wall Street, they would say the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. If Americans were asked in the same poll when the financial crisis on Wall Street started, they would tie it to outbreaks of the virus in the U.S. this year. […]
Federal Reserve Extends Lifeline to Ailing U.S. Oil Industry…
The Federal Reserve made some changes to its Main Street Lending Program according to a Thursday press release by the central bank that will now extend a much-needed lifeline to the U.S. oil industry. As bankruptcies, capex cuts, and unfavorable financial reports from Q1 start to trickle into the US shale patch, more oil companies […]
Looming Meat Shortages Highlight Over-Regulation of Small Farmers, Processors…
In an odd twist brought upon by shutdowns triggered by the CCP virus pandemic, farmers and ranchers around the country are killing off livestock, dumping milk, and breaking eggs even as warnings emerge about impending meat shortages. The problem lies with a handful of giant meat processing companies that take in pigs, cows, and chickens […]
First Quarter GDP Drops 4.8% Amid COVID-19 Shutdown…
The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released the first quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) advanced estimate and the result is a 4.8% decline in economic activity. The revised fourth quarter GDP shows the economy was growing at 2.1 percent prior to the COVID-19 shutdown. The severity of the change in GDP reflects a severe drop […]
“We Are Moving Into The End-Game”: 27 Tankers Anchored Off California, Hundreds Off Singapore as Oil Industry Shuts Down…
Back in the late fall of 2014, when Saudi Arabia broke up OPEC for the first time and unleashed a torrent of crude oil on the world despite the protests of its fellow cartel members, oil prices crashed as a result of what then seemed to be a “calculated” move by Riyadh which hoped to […]